North Korea

According to the Washington Post, U.S. spy agencies are seeing signs that North Korea is constructing new missiles at a factory that produced the country’s first intercontinental ballistic missiles capable of reaching the United States. The Post cites “officials familiar with the intelligence.” It also provides a commercial satellite image, taken on July 7, showing the factory in question. The photo includes a vehicle the Post says is similar to »

I doubt that any sensible, objective observer expected North Korea to denuclearize in response to President Trump’s meeting with Kim Jong Un. However, there was some reason to hope for a modicum of cooperation between the U.S. and North Korea on other issues, though such cooperation was hardly assured. As things stand now, there seems to be precious little cooperation and, of course, no movement towards denuclearization. The Washington Post »

I know, I’m jumping the gun on tomorrow’s Week In Pictures. But here’s the thing–I can access a preview of Steve’s post, which will go up in the morning, and these cartoons by Michael Ramirez aren’t included. So I offer these three cartoons, all created very recently, with a clear conscience. Michael envisions the Senate battle over confirmation of Brett Kavanaugh, a completely unexceptionable nominee, to the Supreme Court. I »

Philip Rucker of the Washington Post claims that President Trump is “open[ly] embrac[ing] totalitarian leaders around the world.” Rucker also tries to persuade us that Trump’s “embrace” is rooted in a desire to be a dictator himself. Rucker is one of the most persistent and intellectually dishonest Trump-hater among the Post’s squadron of “resisters.” However, I don’t deny that Trump went overboard in praising the odious Kim Jong Un. Thus, »

President Trump’s enemies are expressing outrage that he saluted a North Korean general. They compare it to President Obama’s bow to the Saudi king, which Trump found objectionable, and find it far more offensive given the extraordinary odiousness of the North Korean regime. But Trump’s salute was nothing like Obama’s bow. I’m sure you’ve seen the video of the salute, but let’s recap what happened. Trump extended his hand to »

Any accounting of the diplomacy between President Trump and Kim Jong Un should take into account not only what was agreed to in Singapore, but also what was agreed to before the summit. It should not take into account mere agreement to strive for denuclearization, prosperity, peace, love, and understanding. What did Trump get for the United States? The release of three American captives; the return of remains of missing »

A long-time reader with whom we correspond frequently sent us a link to “President Trump’s Video Message To Kim Jong Un: ‘A New Peaceful World Can Begin Today,'” with the comment: “Have you guys seen this? Brilliant video.” Scott was less than impressed, and wondered what is good about it. Steve suggested that the video’s “goofy style” may be based on a psychological profile of Kim Jong-Un, or maybe on »

Most of us realize that the hysterical anti-Trump resistance has difficulty keeping its talking points straight. The latest example concerns North Korea. Last year’s talking point was that Trump, with his “fire and fury” talk, was leading the U.S. into a nuclear war with North Korea. It was a ridiculous claim. The likelihood of Kim Jong Un launching a first strike against the U.S., thereby bringing on “fire and fury,” »

From what I can tell, the summit in Singapore produced a “small ball” agreement. North Korea will return the recovered remains of POW/MIAs and work with us to recover and return additional remains. It will also shutter one missile engine testing site. The U.S. will stop holding the regular “war games” it conducts in conjunction with South Korea. (It’s not clear how the South Koreans feel about ending the “war »

President Trump and the psycho formerly known as Little Rocket Man have concluded their summit conference in Singapore. Their time together included a working lunch resulting in a signed an anorexically skinny agreement with a provision committing North Korea to “complete denuclearization” (text here). President Trump followed up with a press conference (text here). My daughter Eliana followed the proceedings as the pool reporter on the scene. Eliana’s account for »

One of the most important skills I learned from my teacher of international relations, the great Harold Rood of Claremont McKenna College, was how to read a newspaper. I’m not referring to what order to read the paper, or how to “deconstruct” news stories to surmise what is left out, but rather as clues to what is really going on and who has the initiative. This skill was a variation »

Damon Linker argues that there are three potential outcomes of the Trump-Kim summit, none of which is good. The article provides an amusing illustration of how twisted the anti-Trump left has become. One outcome, says Linker, is a “modest” deal, akin to the one President Clinton reached with North Korea. Normally, says Linker, this would be a good outcome because it would avert war, at least for a while. But »

The White House has released the statement below about the Singapore summit meeting tomorrow (embedded below via the Twitter feed of AP White House correspondent Zeke Miller). The statement relates: “The discussions between the United States and North Korea are ongoing and have moved more quickly than expected.” The summit will convene and adjourn in Singapore in the course of the coming day. Something is happening here. White House: Statement »

Secretary Pompeo gave a press briefing on the status of negotiations with North Korea early this morning (our time). The video is below. His remarks anticipated the summit meeting tomorrow. Pompeo devoted his prepared remarks (about five minutes) almost entirely to disputing a New York Times report that the United States lacks the technical expertise to verify North Korean denuclearization. I may be mistaken about this, but I think he’s »

As Steve discussed earlier today, President Trump has cancelled his planned summit with Kim Jong Un. As a fan of the NBA, Kim should have seen it coming. When obnoxious leftist leaders of the Golden State Warriors indicated they might not come to the White House to be honored, Trump “uninvited” them. So Kim shouldn’t have been surprised that when his regime suggested it might cancel the summit, Trump beat »

The White House has just announced that President Trump has cancelled the planned summit with North Korea’s Kim Jong Un. This is an excellent move by Trump, I think. Just this morning my old AEI colleague Nick Eberstadt warned in the Wall Street Journal: North Korea is also threatening to scrap the Singapore parley unless denuclearization is taken off the agenda. There’s no need for Kremlinology here. These are standard »

Earlier this week, President Trump seemed to suggest that, in the absence of a nuclear deal with the U.S., Kim Jong Un’s regime might suffer the same fate as the Qaddafi regime in Libya did. Mike Pence then made this threat explicit, saying: “As the president made clear, this will only end like the Libya model ended if Kim Jong Un doesn’t make a deal.” In response, North Korea’s Vice »